| NOTA |
() `R-0002` es mismo libro. (1.The Christian influence in Japan has been great. Over the past century, many of the nationLs leaders in the fields of politics, education, social work, charity, medicine, and womenLs rights have been Christians. Christian organizations continue today to play an active role in peace and antinuclear movements and in shaping postwar democratic ideals. As a religion, however, Christianity still seems to be struggling for acceptance. Today the Christian population of Japan does not exceed one percent, and conversion frequently demands that the believer overcome numerous personal conflicts and social pressures. There appear to be no unfilled areas in the Japanese spiritual psyche into which Christianity can enter. Shinto celebrates the natural world and fills daily life with festivity and ritual. Buddhism is otherworldly, philosophical. The Confucian tradition has molded behavior, ethics, and the social structure. For many Japanese, Christianity is too intellectual, a condition not helped by the orthodox theological approach of the Japanese churches. In this beautifully illustrated book, Stuart D.B.Picken continues his exploration of JapanLs religious heritage that began with his two much-admired works on Shinto and Buddhism. he looks at ChristianityLs early successes -soon stifled by the forced apostasies and martyrdoms of the seventeenth century- and then examines the obstacles which faced the Protestant foreign missionaries some 250 years later. The central question the author asks throughout is whether there can truly be a place for Christianity in Japan unless that faith refreshes itself with Japanese values, particularly the abiding love of nature, belief in the virtue of spiritual self-discipline, and an emphasis on communalism instead of rectitude. Picken finds that in the contemporary resolution of the fundamental conflict between Japanese and Chriatian cultures lies perhaps the most exciting and hopeful of all of JapanLs Christian encounters : a new basis for human relations and the rededication of Japanese Christians to embracing a faith that is at once more Christlike and more Japanese. 2.Stuart D.B.Picken is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, where he received degrees in Divinity and Philosophy. An ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, he has been living in Japan since 1972 and currently teaches Philosophy and Comparative Ethics at the International Christian University in Tokyo, where he also serves as Chairman of the Division of Humanities. Professor Picken is an active contributor of articles to academic journals and is currently engaged in research investigating the role of traditional Japanese values in contemporary society.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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